Our Participation in International Events in 2019
Last year, we sent 4 delegations to international events: 2 in Venezuela, 1 in Trinidad & Tobago, and 1 in Cuba.
In February 2019, I went to represent LANDS in the International People’s Assembly. I was the only person representing Jamaica, as a representative of the People’s National Party backed out at the last minute. In July, 2 of us went to the Sao Paulo Forum to represent LANDS and the local chapter of the Pan-Africanist Federalist Movement; we were the only 2 representatives of Jamaica. In both events, we met many Comrades from progressive organisations all over the world. This was the 2nd time that LANDS was represented at the Sao Paulo Forum, and it is the only body that we have been able to send 2 delegates to at once, something we did in both 2018 and 2019.
In August 2019, we sent a delegation to the Assembly of Caribbean People’s for the 2nd time, after having already sent one in 2017. Upon his return, the delegate was elected to rank #2 in the Politburo. In November 2018, we participated in a special anti-imperialist meeting that was held in Cuba. We have been deepening our ties with the Left in the region and the world. We already had Comrades in the Caribbean, and now we have more in mainland Latin America, Africa, and Asia. We have also made a few Comrades in North America and, to a lesser extent, in Europe.
First International Peoples Assembly
The International People’s Assembly was preoccupied with the situation of US intervention in Venezuela, thus the declaration revolved around that. Nevertheless, it was a space for people of movements from all over the world to have solid exchanges; these included political parties, labour organisations, and social movements.
25th Sao Paulo Forum
The 25th Sao Paulo Forum was held in Caracas as well. It had special sessions for Afro-Descendants and Youth, followed up by meetings of those sectors in November.
2nd Che Guevara Internationalist Brigade
The 1st iteration of the new Che Guevara Internationalist Brigade had followed the International People’s Assembly, and the 2nd iteration followed the International People’s Assembly. There was a 3rd iteration in February 2020.
For the 1st iteration, we did not participate but we built strong ties with persons and organisations which did, as we encountered each other in the International People’s Assembly; some persons thought that we were a part of that iteration of the brigade. We participated in the 2nd iteration, which has been the longest so far as it was 3 weeks and involved visiting more sites than the 1st or 3rd iterations. We did not participate in the 3rd iteration, but Jamaica was represented by members of the Youth Organisation of the People’s National Party, who we have been in touch with since our formation in 2016.
The 3 weeks spent on the brigade was added to the week spent at the Sao Paulo Forum and another week of mostly downtime spent with a social movement’s operations in Petare; this total of 5 weeks allowed a detailed report on observations in Venezuela.
This report is being released months late, but drafts had been circulated privately to Comrades in other organisations during its writing and development. 2 interesting things have happened since this report, but not as consequences of it:
We had criticised a particular line pushed by some liberal economists including Dr. Damien King, who do not take issues like food security seriously. With the emerging crisis around COVID-19, he has since taken a few steps back on his former sentiment.
We had expressed hope that certain countries start to form a bloc to act together in negotiations for their freedom from coercive measures imposed by the US. They have always been expressing solidarity with each other’s causes bilaterally, but they also engage the US only bilaterally and you would see one country smiling with the US in hopes of easing some pressure on itself while the US is putting pressure on that country’s allies. Now, with the emerging COVID-19 crisis, the countries have signed a joint statement and it seems that this could be ground for them to start pushing for an end to all sanctions and blockades at once instead of individual efforts by individual countries.
8th Assembly of Caribbean Peoples
The 8th Assembly of Caribbean Peoples was held in Trinidad & Tobago, the country where it was first launched in 1994; this 8th Assembly was therefore the 25th anniversary.
Special Anti-Imperialist Meeting in Cuba
We participated in a special anti-imperialist meeting in Cuba, along with other Comrades from Jamaica who are in the Jamaica Peace Council, the Jamaica-Cuba Friendship Association, and the People’s National Party. Someone made the remark that this was supposedly the largest Jamaican delegation to any Leftist event in more than 10 years; Jamaica had a notably smaller presence in other events. Delegates from many organisations around the world were also present, including political parties, labour organisations, and social movements. Even some governments and former heads of state were present.
We had no opportunity to say anything in the plenary session, as there were rougly 1300 delegates present. Still, we contributed to the final declaration through meetings held in smaller caucuses; we participated in the caucus for youth and saw some familiar faces from the 24th Sao Paulo Forum (which was held in 2018) and the International Peoples Assembly. Many youth spoke, until we even ran out of time. We submitted something in writing.
This was the first time that we felt that we directly contributed to the content of a final declaration, despite having more speaking time in other events.
Immediately following this, we participated in planning sessions with ALBA Movimientos as we are building stronger ties with them.
We do not attend these things for fun, nor is our activity limited to expressing solidarity with foreign causes. We are learning from experienced organisers in other countries, and having some of our views and plans validated by persons and movements who may have tried the same things, made mistakes, revised approaches, and so on; at the same time, we ensure that we represent our local particularities. Most of our engagement is with grassroots social movements, not governments. We are also engaged in ideological debates, including on issues that affect us locally like climate change and food security. Expect more information on our hopes for particular local projects in Jamaica, which will be conducted by us without any foreign involvement.